I really don't get it.

AlGard

UTC Legend
Brilliant to 77/78 season in 72 hours.
Why are we not pumped up for every game?

Solanke, might be rusty, but I am calling Rantie already.
And we all know who was right with that.

Truly shocking tonight.
 
We were behind for 90 minutes and created a grand total of 0 openings against Cardiff.

Boruc and Smith played alright. Ibe and Surman weren't bad. Everyone else should be ashamed of themselves.
 
Cardiff are a team known for sitting back and trying to soak up pressure, and are terrible on the ball.

Our best results of the season have been pacy, counterattacking displays.

We start with the intention of dominating possession against a team that parks the bus, with no players in midfield that have the guile to break through.

This was immediately obvious, and was not addressed until the 60th minute. Except it wasn’t. We made like for like changes, carried on tapping it around and watched crosses be cleared ad infinitum.

I truly don’t understand what Eddie was thinking with the starting lineup. I’m not “trolling”; it’s valid f***ing criticism.
 
Cardiff are a team known for sitting back and trying to soak up pressure, and are terrible on the ball.

Our best results of the season have been pacy, counterattacking displays.

We start with the intention of dominating possession against a team that parks the bus, with no players in midfield that have the guile to break through.

This was immediately obvious, and was not addressed until the 60th minute. Except it wasn’t. We made like for like changes, carried on tapping it around and watched crosses be cleared ad infinitum.

I truly don’t understand what Eddie was thinking with the starting lineup. I’m not “trolling”; it’s valid f***ing criticism.
Agree with a lot of that, but just out of interest who else would you have put in central midfield bearing in mind Lerma is not fully fit.
 
Cardiff are a team known for sitting back and trying to soak up pressure, and are terrible on the ball.

Our best results of the season have been pacy, counterattacking displays.

We start with the intention of dominating possession against a team that parks the bus, with no players in midfield that have the guile to break through.

This was immediately obvious, and was not addressed until the 60th minute. Except it wasn’t. We made like for like changes, carried on tapping it around and watched crosses be cleared ad infinitum.

I truly don’t understand what Eddie was thinking with the starting lineup. I’m not “trolling”; it’s valid f***ing criticism.
I just said more or less the same on the Cardiff-AFCB thread. That is the template to beat us, and some of the "other 13" have figured it out. Up to EH and team to come up with a counter.
 
Cardiff are a team known for sitting back and trying to soak up pressure, and are terrible on the ball.

Our best results of the season have been pacy, counterattacking displays.

We start with the intention of dominating possession against a team that parks the bus, with no players in midfield that have the guile to break through.

This was immediately obvious, and was not addressed until the 60th minute. Except it wasn’t. We made like for like changes, carried on tapping it around and watched crosses be cleared ad infinitum.

I truly don’t understand what Eddie was thinking with the starting lineup. I’m not “trolling”; it’s valid f***ing criticism.
Another thing, you can't do pacy counterattacks against a team that doesn't want to commit players forward. The way to play these teams is to first of all ensure you don't give stupid early goals away, if you achieve that there is a chance the opposition will come forward a bit more later on and give you some space.
 
Agree with a lot of that, but just out of interest who else would you have put in central midfield bearing in mind Lerma is not fully fit.

I’d have liked to have seen Gosling and Surman sitting deep in front of the back 4, then a front 3 of Stanislas, Ibe and Fraser, with King as the lone striker. This would hopefully have made Cardiff come at us more, allowing us to hit them on the break.

I’m OBVIOUSLY not “more qualified” than Howe, before anyone comes in with that utterly useless counterpoint, but I feel like this formation would have made more sense.

Mind you, the referee was absolutely atrocious throughout, so we could have played a 4-4-4 and still lost that.
 
Another thing, you can't do pacy counterattacks against a team that doesn't want to commit players forward. The way to play these teams is to first of all ensure you don't give stupid early goals away, if you achieve that there is a chance the opposition will come forward a bit more later on and give you some space.

Yeah that’s a valid point. You almost have to coax these teams out of their shells a bit. If both teams sit back then hey, 3 consecutive clean sheets and an away point. Not too shabby.
 
I agree the ' like for like ' changes just don't make sense at 2-0 down.

One of those unfathomable days.....but when I saw the Chelsea 5-0 result...... I imagined Warnock saying to his players " don't even think about thinking about, what I'm thinking you are thinking about...so they didnt! That was just before he instructed them to rough up King!

I wouldn't want to be Liverpool next week with Solanke going at them to prove a point!
 
Another thing, you can't do pacy counterattacks against a team that doesn't want to commit players forward. The way to play these teams is to first of all ensure you don't give stupid early goals away, if you achieve that there is a chance the opposition will come forward a bit more later on and give you some space.

Spot on.....no change of formation would have prevented Cookie defending like a school kid for both goals.....i'm more p1ssed off about the second one than the first tbh....he was so convinced Reid was offside he made absolutely no effort to get back and challenge him....criminal imo....there will be kids up and down the country tomorrow being told to play to the whistle.
 

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